Setting in Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Discuss the importance of setting in the novel you have studied “Tess of the D’Urbervilles”, by Thomas Hardy, is set in the years of 1880 to 1890, in Wessex, which is in the southwest of England. Settings in the novel, such as Talbothays, Flintcombe-Ash, Sandbourne and Stonehenge are important because they help us to understand the main character, Tess D’Urberville.

In the novel, Tess D’Urberville and the setting she is in, mirror each other. This allows the reader to have an understanding of what Tess’s feeling and emotions are at the time. After the death of her baby, Tess leaves her hometown of Marlott to work at Talbothays, a dairy farm. Talbothays is a “placid valley”, which Tess uses as an opportunity to forget about her baby and Alec. “The sense of being amid new scenes where there were no invidious eyes upon her, sent her spirits wonderfully”. By moving to Talbothays, Tess is given a fresh start in her life. The dairy farm is lush, “green” and fertile. The sun was always shining in “dazzling brilliancy”, “blooming young women”, and milkers always singing “a cheerful ballad” in the farm, and this happy vibe on the farm reflected in Tess as well. It was obvious that throughout the many places Tess travelled to, Talbothays was where she had been the most happiest. Tess had “never in her recent life been so happy as she was now” and “her hopes, rose higher and higher”. Only positive things happened to Tess at Talbothays. The setting of Talbothays, a “happy green tract of land”, also reflected Tess as a person. On the farm crops were cultivated, grown and were harvested. Like the plants and crops, Tess too grew up on the farm. A young Tess came to the farm, put her past and mistakes behind her, matured...